


dustland fairytale

by Wallyallens



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Friends to Lovers, Robbie on the Lifeboat, S5 AU, eventually the rest of the team but for now only these
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-05-15 02:41:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14782118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wallyallens/pseuds/Wallyallens
Summary: s5 AU/rewrite in which Robbie is on the lifeboat. Daisy finds a familiar face, un-aged, and an amnesiac Robbie living in the future. His past is her future. All she knows is that she is glad to see him.





	dustland fairytale

**Author's Note:**

> *shows up late with a rewrite* chime off in the comments and hopefully I'll update sometime this century

Daisy was following Deke from a distance through the belly of the ship.

She found herself weaving her way through steel veins as she peered through the haze of steam and clustered people, trying to keep him within view, but his head was disappearing fast into the crowd. The world had gone from desperate to impossible in heartbeats: sitting in the diner with her team, she had been content to face whatever consequences awaited them, but now – this was crazy. She was in space. In the _future_.

If she stopped for long enough to think about it, Daisy thought that she might start crying.

But her breaking down wouldn’t help anybody; what she needed was information. Deke knew _something_ , she was sure. So her mission was to tail him and find out what he was hiding. She stalked through the metal corridors, the sound of her footsteps echoing dully behind her, with only her mission in mind to block out all the rest.

“Be careful,” Coulson had warned her as she left, hand on her arm. “We don’t know anything about this guy, so keep your distance. He could be dangerous.”

“I know, AC.”

A ghost of a smile played on Coulson’s face. “You also have a habit of picking up strays. The best chance we have to survive is to travel back to our own time and leave this place – and they can’t come with us. Don’t get attached.”

Daisy frowned, “I won’t. Since when do I pick up strays?”

“I seem to remember the last one being called Robbie.”

At the look on Coulson’s face, Daisy had to huff out a half-laugh and nod her head in acknowledgement of that, mentally giving him the point. There might be a glimmer of truth buried in his words. _Maybe_. But Robbie had been unexpected – she didn’t plan on becoming his friend and bringing him into the fold, but he had found a place at her side and somehow managed to stay there. Although she was in a bad situation right then, a part of her hoped that wherever Robbie was back home, that he was okay.

And so Daisy followed the newcomer through an alien ship, telling herself to shake old regrets and focus on fixing their current problems.

As Deke turned a corner, Daisy jogged to keep pace – catching a glimpse of her prey as he paused mid-way down one of the long corridors, next to an alcove in the wall. In the shadowed alcove sat a huddled figure - a bundle of dirty rags that must have been a person once. Deke stopped next to the figure for a moment. From the way he touched the figure’s hand to his own, a sympathetic twitch on Deke’s lips, she figured that this was a gesture of pity. Whoever the person in the alcove was, they looked in need; if Deke was helping them, then she might be wrong about him after this. This act of kindness was the first sign of something good in him she had seen so far.

Soon enough, Deke moved on, after speaking a few words she couldn’t make out from that far away to the shadowed figure. As soon as he was once again out of sight, she pushed forwards down the corridor to follow him, although her eyes kept darting back to the figure in the alcove. Deke hadn’t stopped for anyone yet, not once. This person - whoever they were - had to be important.

The closer she got to the figure in the alcove, the more Daisy could work out – the pile of rags distinguished itself into a grey blanket or cloak wrapped around shoulders she assumed were a man’s due to their broadness. Shoes worn down to the soles peeked out from the bottom of the blanket, toes gripping the metal grates below him; and although the corridor was well-lit, the shadows she thought were from the alcove seemed to cling to him like mists. They converged on the figure: it was almost as if he were wearing them.

It wasn’t until she was level with him that Daisy saw his face.

A constellation of freckles scattered across cheekbones sharp enough to cut yourself on. Dark brown eyes glimmered with the embers of a stamped-out fire. It was a face she would know anywhere, in darkness or disaster, in other dimensions – here, at the end of the world.

The ship fell away at her feet. Although the world was shattered and cracked miles below her, she swore she could feel it spinning in that moment. Shock was too small a word to describe what she was feeling: her heart skipped a beat before catching up in a thunder, hammering away at her ribcage as if it were desperate to escape and fly to him. Her bones froze, and all thoughts of her mission were driven from her mind in an instant as she stood open-mouthed in the middle of the corridor, her world eclipsing to a single all-encompassing thought –

_Robbie_.

It was him. Somehow, the figure huddled in the alcove was Robbie Reyes – her Robbie. Daisy blinked several times; half-believing he was a figment of her imagination, a desert-mirage here to tempt her like a cool drink of water. But as long as she stared at him, Robbie remained. It wasn’t until her blurred eyes had cleared that Daisy was able to distinguish more than just to place him, and a cavernous feeling opened in her stomach.

There was a new scar on Robbie’s face. It sliced across his right cheek, arcing downwards until it reached his jaw. Although it was only a thin line, it drew her attention – Robbie _couldn’t_ be hurt. She had seen as much. The Robbie she had known had healed a scar like that with a swipe of his thumb. Whatever had done this to him . . . it must have been powerful, and painful. Her chest ached at the thought.

But that wasn’t the starkest change in him: no, that was his eyes. They were still the same nut brown, but the spark behind them was missing. Before, Robbie Reyes’ eyes had always been alive. They let off sparks like a bumper dragging on the back of a speeding car, burning into her soul on more than one occasion, like he could see right through her, and he had looked at her in many ways – softly and sadly and even when they were angry – his eyes were _alive_.

Now, they rose to meet her gaze listlessly. Robbie’s eyes were glassy and dead as he looked at her, but nothing flickered behind them; there was no hint of recognition. He had the ten yard stare of a man dead on his feet.

It broke her a little, to see him like that.

Daisy wanted to reach out right then, to take the familiar face over the chrome hell she had woken up with, and stick with the devil that she knew. But there was no time. Her eyes flicked down the corridor – Deke was disappearing, and if he did – he could take their only chance to survive with him. It was an impossible decision: stay here with Robbie, or follow Deke to protect her team. It wasn’t fair – but that was the job. She made hard decisions every day.

Right then, Daisy had to choose her head over her heart.

“I’m coming back for you,” she promised, quietly but firmly. Daisy paused, looking down at Robbie resolutely, making a mental map of his shadowy nook – she was disorientated in a foreign place, but she _would_ find him again. “You hear that? I’ll be right back – don’t you go disappearing on me again, Reyes.”

Each step away seemed to echo like a gunshot through her, shoes clicking against the metal grating as Daisy followed Deke through the ship. Soon, Robbie was lost to the steam and the swarm of bodies; he was just a pair of hooded eyes and ragged clothes in a world of those things, and she could only pray that she was able to find him again.

*

Her mission ended with Deke vanishing into a wall, which turned out to be a door into the past. She stood in a bar-room that felt real – right down to the smell of stale alcohol and cigarettes and regret, and how they artificially manufactured _that_ , she didn’t know – and the world ended.

Or more accurately, she ended the world.

Although the evidence was there in front of her eyes, the Earth cracked, leaving only a debris field of rock and dust, Daisy couldn’t believe it. The world ended with words that poured like acid out of Deke’s gritted teeth, seeped in age-old anger of a wound still bleeding. To him, all of this was her fault: the blue overlords, the machine heart of the human race, the people walking around with dead eyes who had never felt the sun on their skin. The weight of the world was placed on her back in a sentence, and Daisy struggled to breathe as she gazed out of the window, somehow unable to look away; frozen with the horror of all those who witness disaster unfolding, but could do nothing but stare blankly.

_The destroyer of worlds_.

After what could have been an hour or a week, she stepped away. Blinked hard. Forced a breath out of her body, pouring polluted air into the ship before sucking in a lungful of stale recycled air. She could have stood there forever, letting the cracked husk of the Earth swallow her whole, but this wasn’t just about her – she had to help her team. Her family needed her.

_Breathe in. Breathe out._ Get back to work.

“No,” she said, clearly.

Deke blinked. “No?”

“No, that’s not what happened . . . _is_ going to happen? Time travel. Whatever, the point is-” she waved a hand, looking back up at him sharply, “- we’re shield, and we’re here now. And the world isn’t ending, not on my watch.”

“Look around – it’s already gone.”

“Not to me,” Daisy shook her head. “Yesterday I was in a diner, eating burgers with my friends. The sun set. And it’s gonna rise again.”

She looked up at Deke, who was watching her suspiciously now; she felt the same about him. He was supposedly in league with the rebels who had brought them there – or used to be, at least. He was also profiting on people so traumatised that they chose getting lost in memories over reality. But he didn’t join them, and she had to bet that there was still some part of him that remembered how to fight for a future worth living in.

Daisy continued, “I’m going to be there when it does. There _has_ to be a reason why I’m here, to see this. I think it was so that we could go back and stop it from happening.”

“You’ll be lucky to survive this place, let alone escape it-” Deke scoffed mirthlessly. “Trust me, I’ve tried. If you and your friends know what’s good for you – you’ll hide. Find somewhere to fit in, and forget your world. It’s gone. If you want to survive . . . forget.”

“Like you do? Like all these people do, trading away their lives for a dream in here?”

“You try living like this! See if you wouldn’t do the same.”

Daisy thought about the framework. That was a nightmare, but – if Lincoln had been there, or if there had been a way to make that world real, just so Trip could keep smiling – she doesn’t know if she’d have left it. She would have given anything to make that world real, for them.

Her eyes refocused to see the line of Deke’s jaw tighten, but recognised the hurt now. It was familiar to her. Better not to hope for anything than to hope for something, and lose it. Better to keep the world at arm’s length behind a wall of anger than to let people in who could hurt you. She understood wanting to escape into a dream. But not at the expense of reality.

“I get that it’s hard, and it’s a shitty world,” she said, shrugging a little. It was a gesture of acknowledgement; that she had listened, and understood. Deke relaxed, straight shoulders slouching – only to rise up again at her next words. “But that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing in it worth fighting for. As long as there are people, as long as there is some semblance of humanity left up here . . . I still believe it’s worth saving. I’d take a harsh reality over a dream because although it hurts, at least this is _real,_ and there are people who need us. Both of us. So the only question here is – are you going to help us? Or stay here with shitty beer that isn’t even real?”

Daisy let her hands fall open, shrugged. She was in space, in the future, and although she didn’t trust him, she needed Deke’s help. They all did, in order to survive long enough to ensure that there were never here and that this place never existed in the first place; that a lifeboat wasn’t needed. The world wasn’t going to end twice.

For a long moment, Deke made no reply. He looked at her, eyes so desperate, something hopeful still living in them, and yet at the same time looked terrified. It was hard, to believe. Daisy knew that. But after a long minute, Deke blew air out of his mouth and stepped forward.

“I can’t believe I’m even consider this, but . . . if I did help you – what would we do next?”

“We can’t save the world today-” Daisy admitted, feeling her lips twitch upwards, itching to smile. It seemed hope was living aboard the lifeboat yet. “But we can start by saving one person. We can do that – but I’ll need your help. Whatever this is-” she waved around, indicating the artificial bar, “- could you make one from my memories?”

Deke’s face ordered itself into an expression of confusion, but he nodded. “Sure. But why?”

“There’s a friend of mine here. I don’t think that he recognised me, when I saw him. We could use this place to jog his memories, help him to remember.”

“Sounds like he’s important.”

“He is,” Daisy replied, without hesitation. “I owe Robbie my life. I don’t know how he’s here – or how he’s even still alive – but I know that our chances are better off with him than without him. And I owe him to try to get through to him, even if he decides that this isn’t his fight.”

Deke lifted a hand, “Lead the way, Quake.”

*

With Deke following behind her, bitching for the entire way about what a huge mistake he had made, Daisy led the way through the winding corridors, searching for the place that she had seen Robbie.

It was a warren of steel and endless rooms, each corridor looking the same to her, although Deke guided her back along the route he had taken earlier. All she had to do was find the nook that Robbie had been sitting in. But people pressed all around them, making it hard to see clearly, and with each corner they passed, she stood on her toes and struggled to see over heads and past bodies, worried that she could easily have walked past Robbie in this maze. He was out there, somewhere –

_Alone_.

“At what point do we decide that your friend is better off far, _far_ away from you, and give up?” Deke asked, head bobbing as he walked. He sent her a wan grin, utterly without humour. “Don’t you have other lost causes to waste time trying to save?”

It ached in her heart to do this while Jemma was still missing and they still had no clue how – or even if – they could get home, Daisy couldn’t just leave Robbie here. He looked exactly the same. The entire world had changed, moved on; yet he was the same as he was a hundred years ago, and she could only image what he had seen. For all she knew, Robbie had been on his own for a long, long time. She couldn’t just leave him like that.

“He’s here somewhere – it’s not like he could leave,” she pointed out, craning her neck to see down a long corridor. “And you keep saying that we’re doomed, right?”

“Absolutely,” Deke agreed.

“Then what we need is firepower against the Blues. If it’s a fight that’s coming, then there’s nobody I’d rather have at my side than Robbie.”

Pouting slightly, Deke puffed out his chest a little. “Gee, thanks. You make a guy feel real wanted.”

Not even bothering to dignify that with a response, Daisy rolled her eyes and returned her attention to looking for her friend among the crowds. If it was a choice between Deke the Mouth and Robbie, she knew who she trusted to have her back – there was no competition. And she would feel a lot better about continuing with someone who she could already trust, rather than having to place it entirely on the stranger beside her.

_Wait_ -

Daisy turned to Deke excitedly.

“You!”

“Me?”

“You’re _exactly_ who I need right now-”

“I know I joked about not feeling wanted, but you’re laying it on a little thick now-”

“-you can lead me right to Robbie!” Daisy grinned, utterly ignoring Deke. “You stopped right by him! How could I forget? Deke, the man you stopped and gave something to, the one in the alcove – that’s Robbie.”

“That guy?” Deke blinked, his facade of reluctance dropping to something more real, and worried. He put his hands in his pockets, saying lowly, “I help that guy out because he’s always been around, as long as I can remember. And nobody messes with him. I’ve seen what happens when they try to.”

“Yeah. So have I,” Daisy nodded. “That’s why we need him now. Can you take me to him?”

“Are you sure this is what you want? Listen, I can tell me meant something to you back in your time, but now – he’s not stable, and he’s not safe to be around. You’re more likely to draw attention with him. I hate to say it, but . . . you’d be safer leaving him where he is.”

“No, no way-” Daisy didn’t even consider it. Not for a second. “I’m not leaving him like that, if there’s something I can do to help.”

Although he paused for a long second, Deke nodded, seeing the determination in her eyes. After that, he began to walk down the corridor with purpose.

“Alright then, suicide mission it is. This way.”

They walked with direction this time, Daisy following impatiently at Deke’s heels as he led the way, looking past him down the long corridors, eyes scanning the space until -

“I see him.”

The words left her in a breath, and in the next she was striding down the corridor as everything else fell away; the crowds parting like the red sea around her.

She could see Robbie, sitting in the same nook as before, shadowed and ragged. He was there – so close – she walked until she was just a few feet away then stopped, barely daring to blink for fear he would disappear. As she stood, he remained. Robbie was there: he still looked un-aged, but she could see the wear and tear of the years on him. But he was still Robbie.

A smile crept its way onto her face, despite it all.

“Stay back-” she said, pausing to talk to Deke. Robbie was still in her sights, and her eyes remained firmly on him; she could feel Deke stop beside her, so assumed that he was listening and warned. “-I don’t know if Robbie will be himself. Keep your distance until I say it’s safe.”

She moved toward Robbie, leaving him behind, all of her attention on her friend. People moved to let her pass, as she approached the alcove in the wall. Daisy stopped a few feet away from Robbie, who remained motionless; his listless eyes staring into dead space.

“Robbie?”

The word found its way from her throat to her lips, although it came out cracked and weak. Her knees thudded dully against the metal grating as she knelt in front of him, hand hovering in mid-air between them, like she was reaching out to a frightened animal. Tongue darting between parted lips, Daisy swallowed past the lump in her throat and tried again, louder.

“Robbie -”

As she reached out towards him, a hand darted from the shadows, grabbing her wrist before her hand could touch his face.

The sound reverberated through the corridor, punctuated by her gasp at the sudden movement. Robbie’s grip on her wrist wasn’t tight, but it didn’t let her move any closer either – and now he was looking at her. Something sparked in his eyes, but it was foggy; he blinked heavily, leaning forward a little out of the shadows, and Daisy could barely breathe.

“Robbie, it’s _me_. I’m your friend-” she spoke slowly, never breaking eye contact. Daisy opened her hand in his own a little, indicating she wasn’t going to try to touch him again, and the grip loosened, but he didn’t let go – now, it was like he was trying to hold onto something. He was looking at her like the memory was just beyond his outreached fingertips. “Robbie, come on. You _know_ me. It’s Daisy.”

Finally, the ember kindled. A fire started in its place.

“No, Robbie, what are you-” Daisy began to move backwards as the familiar flicker of flames lit up in Robbie’s eyes, “-No, _don’t_!”

As the Rider began to rise, the raggedy cloak smoking vaguely as Robbie stood; Daisy snatched her arm out of his gasp and stumbled backwards until her back hit the metal wall behind her.

People had begun to take notice of them now. Some turned and ran, moving away from the commotion, with a scatter of whispers taking up their place; out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Deke ushering people away, eyes wide. But all Daisy had eyes for was Robbie.

He was still holding on, somehow. Smoke made the shadows around him lengthen, and the fire prickled at the corner of his eyes as he shook his head a little, still looking at her. At his sides, his hands clenched into fists, then slacked slowly. It was what he did when he was trying to hold back the Rider.

“Robbie-” Daisy said, stepping closer. She wasn’t afraid of him, not now. Looking unblinkingly up at him even as people fled, she stood her ground. “I know you can hear me. And I know that you’re fighting Him right now, but I need you to hold on, okay? I need you to try to remember me . . . your name is Robbie Reyes. You live – _lived_ – in L.A with your brother, Gabe. I’m-”

“-Daisy,” Robbie cut in. His voice was hoarse, thin with lack of use, and his eyes squinted slightly as he said it again, like he wasn’t sure. “Daisy Johnson.”

Despite herself and the whole shitty situation, Daisy felt her face crack into a weak smile as she nodded, “Yeah, that’s right . . . it’s me.”

Just when she thought that she could get through to him, just as Robbie seemed to remember her – the darkness on his face doubled. The hands at his sides clenched, but never released. Robbie broke his gaze to look down for a second, lips forming words before he looked back up at her, but this time his jaw was set in anger. When he spoke, his voice was cold.

“You _left_ me.”

“What?” Daisy stammered out. Slowly, she angled her body so that the now-empty corridor was behind her, backing away a few steps. She desperately wanted Robbie to be on her side, like he had been before – but she didn’t like the cold fire in his eyes. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about-”

Robbie emerged from the alcove, the king of shadows with his tattered rags and flaming eyes. The Rider seemed weaker now that it had been before – he smoked, and the edges of his clothes caught alight and simmered, but the fire didn’t burn him away entirely anymore. It seared instead, just below the skin.

He walked towards her, and Daisy slowly backed away, extending a hand between them.

“Robbie,” she said again, hoping that his name might sink in. That it might be enough to tether him, and bring him back. “Robbie, I don’t wanna fight you.”

“We fought . . . the day we first met,” Robbie said, face clouding with memory again.

Daisy was reminded of gasoline-drenched clothes and the emptiness that was threatening to consume her, back then. She had met him in the darkness. They both had lived there for a while. And then somewhere along the way – they’d stepped back into a half-light. She had seen Robbie burn, and burn longer for people he barely knew when he was finally free of the chains around his neck. She had seen him become a hearth with his brother, instead of an explosion. It was all flames and fighting with them; they had never known the quiet between one fight and the next, not really – but in moments, she had come to know the real Robbie Reyes. And he knew her too, down to the colour of her blood, and the depths of her soul.

“We did,” she nodded, fighting tears. “But not for long. We fought together after that. Remember that?”

“Oh, I do,” Robbie said, and for the first time, he sounded like his old self. There was the same bite in his tone as they had been in the mechanics yard, when she had pretended to be an old friend whilst sipping coffee as bitter as his expression. “I remember coming back for you. I fought my way back, and we were . . .”

Daisy felt her heart shudder, and then stall.

“What, Robbie?”

He was quiet for a minute. Only Robbie’s own breathing filled the corridor, as his face showed his internal struggle – brows creased, head shaking slightly, he tried to place together fragments that were shattered; memories mostly-forgotten, and yet –

And yet, she was still breathing.

“. . . The world was ending, chica. It was flames and destruction and the earth about to swallow us whole and I . . . I was okay with it. I was ready to die with you.”

Something else flickered in Robbie’s gaze now. His eyes shone under the lights, glistening, creasing at the edges, and _there_ was the humanity that Daisy remembered. Only now, it looked a lot like a broken heart. Robbie looked down again, and by the time he took another step towards her, the anger was stomping back -

“I was going to die _with_ you, Daisy, and you _left me here_! I was ready to go! I wanted to-” Robbie shouted, striding towards her fast now. Flames licked at his lips and the tears were heavy in his eyes. The words went through her like bullets. “I _wanted_ to die. I wanted it to be over – scores settled, debt paid – maybe finally find some peace. But it never stopped, _He_ is still there, digging away in my skull screaming because he’s trapped here – and I – I’ve lived too long, Daisy. I’m _tired_.”

Suddenly, Daisy felt the fight leave her; hand falling, she let him come for her. Robbie stopped right in front of her face, so close his breath hit her cheeks, and leaned even closer, until she could see the horrors behind his eyes. Even he seemed more broken than angry now, shaking as the exhaustion ran across his face. Eyes over a hundred years old staring back at her, and Daisy felt every minute of those years in his gaze, unable to look away, or even blink.

When Robbie reached out, she didn’t flinch – didn’t move an inch. He could have killed her right then, but all Daisy did was look back at him, trying to hold back her own tears, and whispered.

“ _I’m sorry_.”

His hand didn’t close around her throat. It didn’t burst into flames. Instead it found a strand of her hair and held it gently, his rough, calloused fingers sliding across her face and cradling her cheek. That hurt more than anything else he could have done, by far.

Daisy felt a tear slip loose as he stepped close; looking at her like he was drinking her in. It occurred to Daisy that this Robbie hadn’t seen her in a long, long time. He’d probably never expected to see her again.

Robbie was all that she could see now: he eclipsed the future she had found herself in, hand on her cheek, his forehead so close to hers that they bumped together when she breathed out.

“I don’t know what happened. I don’t know . . . I have no idea how you got here. How _we_ got here-” Daisy said, softly, “-but I’m here now. And I can help you, Robbie – do you trust me?”

Robbie chuckled. In his throat, the sound was raspy and crackled, but his head bobbed against hers.

“Yeah,” he replied. “I do. I remember that much.”

“Then come with me. I think there’s a way for you to remember the rest.”  

A head nodded against her own in answer, as her fingers tightened on his neck, right at his hairline. Daisy held him for a second or two longer. It was only a moment in between the chaos – sometimes, it felt like that was all they had – but she allowed herself that brief respite. The world was dead beneath their feet, and they were lost in time, but Robbie was here, and somehow, that made things seem better. She could lose herself in that for a moment.

Then she straightened and glanced back towards Deke – whose face was pinched in surprise, but carefully kept it neutral aside from that – before turning back to Robbie and nodding. He was not the same. He _couldn’t_ be, not after all this time.

Robbie’s eyes were brown, about an inch away from her own. There was no room between them for light, but they shone out anyways, beacons in a storm. The Rider had always been the storm; Robbie the lighthouse. She hoped that there was light enough left in him now.


End file.
